(no subject)

I hadn't intended to spill more ink on this, but it's still on my mind. Someone I know through fandom, am on a fannish discord with, has reviewed the books they read this year. They particularly hated a book by an Indian author, largely because they have gravely misunderstood the Indian historical and cultural context, but, hey, if stupidity was a crime we'd have even more difficulty with prison overcrowding, and you can hate a book. God knows I hate a lot of them. But this person - a normal person, who believes, I've no doubt, that they are perfectly normal - goes on to wonder why all the books by Indian authors are so shitty. They're just cursed with Indian authors.

I don't know why this bothers me so much, a day later. I think it's just so specifically contemptuous. And obviously I don't need personal reassurance about my work and gifts. (It feels like it's beneath me to even rebut the supposition, tbh.) But it upsets me, I think, that while most racism I encounter these days is mindless systemic racism, the good old-fashioned you-smell-of-curry-you-stupid-bitch kind persists. My kindergarten teachers were rather shocked by my intelligence. And these things persist.